신라의 奴人村 - 「울진봉평리신라비」를 중심으로 -

Abstract

As the Korean ancient society was centralized and the residence of the King became the royal capital (王都), the central and local regions were created. Since the establishment of the local regions, the local societies started to be fragmented. During the process of division, the slave villages (奴人村) were formed, which were described on the Bongpyeong Silla Stele in Uljin (蔚珍 鳳坪里新羅碑). Slaves were non-freemen in terms of the social status, who were in the same status of servants, and socially disregarded. Therefore, the slave villages could be regarded as groups that were socially treated with contempt. The slave villages were formed mainly by the collective punishment (懲罰) for the mistakes made by the individuals living in a certain region or the people in the region. Therefore, the Samin (徙民) group who moved to other regions as a punishment for raising a riot and the groups who settled in a certain region after being held captive were likely to form slave villages. The groups who moved to other regions escaping from famine or diseases were fallen into the members of the slave villages if they failed to settle in. Since the slave villages were in charge of the socially disregarded arduous works, the jobs were extremely demanding. However, the slave villages formed a part of the local administrative district although they were treated with contempt. Therefore, if one of the members of a slave village made a huge contribution to the society, the village was leveled up to the regular village as a reward. These slave villages were managed and operated under the slave act.